Bibliography re-discovered!

Geoffrey Roper, bibliographical consultant, Cambridge

Index Arabicus is a bibliography of Arabic periodical articles, 1870-1969. Modelled on Index Islamicus, it was originally compiled on cards by members of MELCOM-UK in the 1970s, sent to Beirut for printing, and apparently lost in the turmoil of the Lebanese civil war.

More recently the cards came into the possession of the University of Imam al-Ouzai in Beirut, who have entered their contents into an online database, provided by Multidata Services.

It is an invaluable research tool for most aspects of Arabic and Islamic studies in that period (1870-1969). Searching must of course be done in the Arabic script, but an on-screen keyboard is available.

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